My subscription to the Bejing News seems to have lapsed, but luckily for us, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Charles Gardner is right on top of things.
Guangdong Tigers owner Chen Haitao was quoted in Tuesday’s Beijing News as saying Yi Jianlian would “definitely not” play for the Bucks next season. Yi plays with the Guangdong team in the Chinese Basketball Association.
Chen said his primary concern was Yi’s development and playing opportunities with the Bucks, not the lack of a large Asian-American population in Milwaukee.
“This is not – as media reports have said – because Milwaukee, as a city with very few Chinese people, is not good for Yi’s commercial development,” Chen said. “Rather we want to find a team suitable for Yi’s growth. That’s the root of the problem.”
Chen expressed concern that Yi would have trouble getting much playing time with the Bucks. Yi plays power forward, a position where the Bucks struggled with injuries last season and at times had undersized Ruben Patterson playing the position.
Harris has said that Yi would have a great chance to earn minutes at the position, possibly sharing time with third-year pro Charlie Villanueva. And Bucks players, including Villanueva and returning point guard Mo Williams, have said how important it is for the Bucks to add Yi to the roster.
“The national team and the Olympic Games are now our key considerations,” Chen said. “If Yi goes to a team where he can’t compete, that would be being irresponsible to the national team.”
(the director and producer have much in common : the former had to contend with Dr. Gene Scott, the latter shares a locker room with Sam Cassell).
Clipperblog’s Kevin Arnovitz, filling in for Henry Abbot at True Hoop, reports that Elton Brand’s sideline as an indie film producer seems to have worked out nicely, what with the strong reviews for the Werner Herzog/Christian Bale feature “Rescue Dawn”. I dunno if Bill Simmons has weighed in yet on Herzog’s latest, but clearly Brand was unmoved by the Sports Putz’ musings on the matter of “Grizzly Man”.